Private otolaryngology and allergy practices are facing increased operational, administrative and regulatory pressures. Markets are becoming more competitive; organizations that were once strong sources of referrals are now competitors. Additionally, practices are challenged with recruiting, cyber security risks, digitization of the patient experience, rising costs, and more complex insurance, regulatory and reimbursement issues.
These tasks are time consuming, especially for physicians who want clinical autonomy and improved patient care. To help navigate these challenges, private practices are choosing to partner with a physician practice management group.
What is a practice management platform? What are its benefits?
Physician practice platform organizations offer economies of scale that smaller practices simply cannot access. A practice management group helps private practices to compete by providing lower costs of goods and services at economies of scale and access to capital.
Will Zollicoffer, Chief Financial Officer of Parallel ENT & Allergy has over 15 years of physician practice management experience. In consulting with private practices, he’s witnessed the challenges that physicians face in today’s complex healthcare environment. “A practice management company can provide the capital and the non-clinical, administrative services, which offers immediate relief to physicians and practice administrators.”
When joining a practice management group, the experience, approach and culture of the group they’re joining are important factors to consider. Adds Zollicoffer, “Experience in physician practice management and approach matters. When private practices partner with us, they’re bringing in seasoned collaborators who know best practices in the ENT and allergy space. We apply those best practices and tailor our strategic plan to the individual needs of each practice. Whether it’s finance, accounting, recruiting, or IT, our practice partners are looking to us to smoothly run their non-clinical operations. Ultimately this provides efficiencies, savings and better staff productivity to practices.”
Physicians and practice partners agree that choosing the right practice management partner matters. Says Dr. Neil Hockstein of ENT & Allergy of Delaware, “We had interest from several private equity organizations and evaluated them all. What was important to us was the experience of the leadership team, whether they were easy to work with and the added value of their shared services. After reviewing all our options, we chose Parallel ENT & Allergy for our practice.”
What our experts say about joining a practice management model.
Zollicoffer underscores the need for practices to keep in mind the big-picture strategies and efficiencies that a practice management group can offer.
Sometimes private practices are not getting enough support from their current partners. For example, private practices may have partners such as EMR (electronic medical record) solutions, digital agencies and outsourced bookkeeping and recruiters. These partners provide services, but they usually aren’t working cohesively or executing an overall strategic plan for the practice. Practice administrators are left managing too many vendors and partners, which takes time away from patients.
Another thing to consider, according to healthcare digital leader Suz Murphy, is that the services that private practices frequently receive from their partners are often the same services being sold to the practice’s competitors.
Tri Phenix, VP of IT, agrees that practices can benefit from the different approach that practice management partners can provide.
Similarly, recruiting healthcare talent has become even more competitive in the post-pandemic era. Misty Yost, a veteran healthcare recruiter, has experienced first-hand how some practices are so busy with patients, they could use help attracting physician and provider talent.
Joining a practice management group is a smart move for private ENT, allergy and audiology practices.
With the capital and expertise that a practice management group provides, private practices are better able to compete in today’s complex healthcare marketplace—enabling the practice to focus more on patient care and less on practice administration.
To learn more how our practice management partnership can help your practice, schedule a private consultation.
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